State Senator Susan Moran Visits Buzzards Bay Businesses
When asked how she feels heading into the November general election, Plymouth and Barnstable District state Senator Susan L. Moran (D-Falmouth) said she is optimistic.
“There was such a good turnout [for the Primary],” she said. “I think a lot of people are informed voters, and we have time for more conversations going forward. I’m just going to keep reaching out and doing the work and talking to people about what they need and listening to suggestions.”
Listening to needs and suggestions was exactly the point of Sen. Moran’s trip to Buzzards Bay’s Main Street last Friday, September 9. The senator, who is running for reelection against Republican candidate Kari MacRae, was accompanied on her business tour by her campaign manager Jason Cullinane, Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce president Marie Oliva, Bourne Select Board chairman Peter Meier, and Democratic candidate for Barnstable County Sheriff Donna Buckley.
A Stroll On Main Street
Beginning at Mezza Luna for a light snack, the group convened and was able to chat with E.J. Cubellis, the restaurant’s owner. Sen. Moran, who is the Senate chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, praised Mr. Cubellis for keeping his business thriving in the wake of the pandemic-forced shutdowns.
“You’re one of the standard bearers,” she said.
Mr. Cubellis chalked his success up to a tight-knit family of hardworking employees and other local businesses, who all relied on each other during what proved to be an incredibly trying time for local establishments. Mr. Cubellis said that there are great working relationships between the businesses in the Buzzards Bay area.
“There’s no competition; we’re all friends here,” he said of local restaurants; and of his employees, “Some of them have been here for decades… it’s a family.”
Mr. Cubellis said he has built his business off simple things: treating employees right, paying fair wages, and having good relationships with the community. But it is not all blue skies quite yet for local businesses. Mr. Cubellis attested to the strain that is being put on mid-sized businesses getting squeezed between rent payments, utility bills, and all the other overhead costs of owning a business.
Sen. Moran, nodding in agreement, said, “We really need to watch that.”
One of the things that the joint committee Sen. Moran chairs is looking at, she said, is addressing the effectiveness of things like extended outdoor seating and to-go alcoholic beverages as mitigations to the financial stress businesses are feeling.
“We’re going to a couple of retail businesses to actually speak with the folks who are small business owners,” Sen. Moran said while walking down Main Street, “talk to them about all of the demands they’re juggling, and to see what we can do at the State House to help, so that we can get our economy back thriving.”
Sen. Moran has been at work in the State House since 2020, and one of her main focuses has been creating a robust economy, specifically by getting women back to work. Last year, she was one of the filers of Bill S.362, known as the original Common Start Bill, aimed at ensuring child care affordability and supporting the stability of the childcare sector with the hopes of allowing parents to work more comfortably and ensure childhood development.
“It’s going to put women back to work and improve children’s lives,” Sen. Moran said.
By talking directly with local business owners, Sen. Moran hopes to gauge what other issues have plagued small and mid-sized businesses and bring that information back to the State House so that legislators can begin working toward mitigation strategies.
After Mezza Luna, Sen. Moran and her group headed down the road to Red Top Sporting Goods, where owner/president Tom Coots and his son AJ talked about how business is going in the fishing industry. Business is good, they said, but not quite as good as it was during 2020, when Red Top was almost always bustling with customers.
Business is about 50/50 when it comes to regular shoppers and locals compared to tourists, Mr. Coots said. But now, staffing issues have taken their toll on the business, Mr. Coots said.
“It’s brutal right now,” he said. “It really is hard. I can’t stress to you enough how hard it is to get people to work.”
It can be difficult to predict business at Red Top, Mr. Coots said, especially when things like the unpredictability of fish from season to season and the bridge traffic can easily throw a wrench in what they would have predicted to be a busy business day.
“Because the bridges are so antiquated and because they get backed up to Middleboro sometimes… quite frankly, on a Saturday, when I expect to do a lot of business and I’ve got six [or] seven guys here, and it’s backed up, the six and seven guys are [twiddling their thumbs] and it’s costing me several hundred dollars an hour,” Mr. Coots said.
It is hard to predict the ebbs and flows of business and the economy, Mr. Coots said, but he and his staff are proud of the business that they do and take their relationships with their customers, regulars or out-of-towners, seriously. They talk tricks of the trade, help customers find the equipment best suited for their needs, and always share a laugh or two before sending the fishers on their way. And Stella, the store’s great Dane who was celebrating her second birthday on the day of Sen. Moran’s visit, is always accepting pets and scratches.
“You’re not only equipping them,” Sen. Moran said, “you’re also educating them.”
“The thing that brings the customers here, I think, is local expertise and advice,” Mr. Coots said.
November Preparation
Providing affordable and reliable child care to working parents and providing businesses with relief specific enough to address their struggles are two of the ways Sen. Moran hopes to revitalize the Upper Cape economy. But economic revitalization is just one of Sen. Moran’s campaign priorities for re-election in November.
“We’re looking at transportation,” Sen. Moran said. “In my district, we’re going back to work more after COVID. We want to get the same attention that the [MBTA] is getting right now in terms of transportation challenges. We want to bring that to the Plymouth/Barnstable district and be sure that when we have our drive toward electric cars, for example, that we have enough chargers. We want to do it right.”
For Sen. Moran, doing it right is what matters most, including being cognizant of the state of Cape Cod’s ecosystems and the impacts of climate change.
“We are dealing with sea level rise at the same time we have a ton of oceanfront property,” said Sen. Moran, who is a resident of Falmouth. “We want to plan toward the future, so that we’re balancing continuing to protect our resources and the lifestyles of our community while we are at the same time investing in the way we want our infrastructure to look going forward.”
Sen. Moran will be on the ballot November 8 as the Democratic candidate for re-election to the Massachusetts Senate for the Plymouth and Barnstable districts, which encompasses the towns of Kingston, Pembroke and Plymouth in the county of Plymouth; and the towns of Bourne, Falmouth and Sandwich. As of 2023, the towns of Mashpee and Plympton will be included in that district.